14
August
2013
|
08:39 AM
America/Los_Angeles

What Are The Benefits To Communities From Living Next To Insular Tech Companies?

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Facebook campus One Hacker Way.

Jessica Guynn, at the LA Times covers some familiar ground in her report: San Francisco split by Silicon Valley's wealth - latimes.com

This part was interesting:


The vast wealth being amassed by the tech industry is not spilling over into the community…

Unlike in previous booms, the tech industry isn't creating as many middle-class jobs or as much goodwill. The gap between Silicon Valley's high and low earners is widening, with average per-capita incomes going up while median household incomes have fallen for the third consecutive year, according to Joint Venture Silicon Valley, a private group that publishes an annual report card on the region.

In a region that lays claim to some of the world's wealthiest companies, food stamp participation has hit a 10-year high, and homelessness has increased 20% in the last two years, the group found.


Why do other states, cities, and countries want tech companies so badly when they don't want to pay taxes, or integrate into their communities?

There's no benefit to local communities when they keep their workers inside their buildings all day long, such as Twitter, which is supposed to be helping to gentrify one of the poorest neighborhoods in San Francisco.

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Please see: 

Living In The Shadow Of The Googleplex: Communities Struggle To Keep Jobs 

Silicon Valley Neighborhoods: Google's Free Food Hurting Local Businesses

Silicon Valley Ageism? Survey Shows Tech Workers Are Very Young

Techno-Optimists Celebrated In Silicon Valley Visionary Awards